You’ll Never Guess Who’s The Most Bankable ‘Avengers’ Star

With “Thor: The Dark World” dominating this weekend’s box office, you’d be forgiven from thinking that Chris Hemsworth was one of the biggest stars in the world. And granted, the god of thunder is pretty huge; but he’s not actually the biggest star to come out of “Marvel’s The Avengers.” In fact, he barely even cracks the top ten.

Based on the worldwide total gross of their movies, MTV News discovered the surprising top box office earner from “The Avengers.” And even if you can guess who’s number one, your jaw will drop at which actor fits in the number two slot:

A couple of words about methodology:

» All data was taken from BoxOfficeMojo.com, which records the current total box office gross for each actor and their respective starring roles.

» This is for worldwide gross, not just domestic gross for their movies.

» It does not include cameos. So, for example, Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t get credit for his one minute long appearance in “The Incredible Hulk.”

» This also doesn’t include the reported worldwide gross for “Thor: The Dark World.” So far the movie has grossed approximately $327,009,000 worldwide. That would bring Hemsworth in spitting distance of Chris Evans’ worldwide total, and would add to Tom Hiddleston and Stellan Skarsgard; but at the current time it wouldn’t change the order of the rankings.

But more importantly, what can we take away from this?

First of all, things are truly looking up for Lars Von Trier’s Stellan Skarsgard starring “Nymphomaniac.”

Second, and more seriously, it looks like Marvel Studios might want to explore some sort of female-centric movie (if they aren’t already), given that Gwyneth Paltrow and Scarlett Johansson have grossed far more than any of their male co-stars. Whether domestic fans would line up for “Pepper and the Widow” is certainly up for debate, but worldwide numbers don’t lie.

Look for these rankings to switch quite a bit as “Thor: The Dark World” continues its blockbuster run. And if early buzz is any indication, we may be in for an even bigger change when “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” hits theaters April 4th, 2014.